Q: You have seen Rahul Gandhi growing up. You know him better than many other people in this country. There is a section, both within and outside Congress, which believes that Rahul has failed to deliver. So how do you look at Rahul as a possible Prime Minister of India?
Mani: The Rajiv Gandhi family was a very close knit family and a very private family. So although I had occasionally met Rahul while he was growing up, I cannot, in any way, claim to have known him except perhaps in the election campaign of 1989 when he travel several places with his father and I was part and parcel of that suite. After his father's assassination, he was mostly out of India so I didn't really see him.
The first opportunity I got of interacting with him as a political personality was when the Lok Sabha elections of 2004 took place. And it was my expectation that because of my association with his father I would be associated with him but that never happened. It did not happen then and it has not happened now. Now I have known him as a politician for 10 years but I had hardly any interaction with him. Therefore I'm not really in a position to answer your question on the basis of personal knowledge.
At best I can say that I have watched his performance as the general secretary in-charge of the youth Congress and Student Congress. And he certainly brought in a completely new, a totally revolutionarily ethos in youth Congress and student Congress. When he got elected as vice president and he placed himself to the same path for the parent body, I cheered louder than perhaps anybody else has. I'm completely unimpressed with the electoral setbacks that we had. States like Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh were bound to go to the BJP. Rajasthan has been swinging between two parties and this time it was BJP's turn. I was a bit concerned about Delhi but the victory here has been of the AAP and not of the BJP. And I admire Rahul for deciding that his first publicized political foray will be in an impossible state like UP. He could have easily taken the path of championing the cause of the Congress, say in Maharashtra or in Andhra Pradesh that it used to be. But no, he picked up the biggest challenge of all recognizing that if you don't win UP you can't run the country on your own. You may run the country in partnership.
Q: But in UP, BJP is moving forward with a clear cut agenda but the congress is left with no option in the state.
Mani: Who says? On both counts, I'd disagree with you. I don't think BJP is moving forward in UP at all and I don't think that the Congress is a gone case there. What is a totally new factor and one which can upset a lot of calculations is that in that part of Uttar Pradesh which runs within the greater Delhi belt, extending from Aligarh to Bareilly, the AAP intends to make a showing. They are the force that seems to have attracted a lot of attention. And therefore, some of the calculations that are going on may have to be reworked. And there I see that the worst sufferer is the BJP. Why? Because one psephologist on another TV channel has publically stated that his calculations show that for every 0.1 percent of the national vote that goes to the AAP , 1 BJP seat will be lost. So if the AAP were to get 1 percent of the national vote, the BJP will lose 10 seats that it would have otherwise got. At 5 percent, BJP would lose 50 seats and if AAP gets 10 percent, BJP would lose 100 seats. So if I were in BJP, I would be running scared.
Q: It's very clear that the BJP is scared of AAP and that's why they have sharpened their attack on AAP of late but as we saw in Delhi assembly elections, AAP caused maximum damage to Congress. Your CM lost the elections and your party had never fared so badly in Delhi.
Mani: But as a result of AAP winning 28 seats in Delhi, the BJP lost all these seats. All these seats might have gone to BJP. Now if you can divide your opposition then it's the best thing that could happen. We have not created AAP. The AAP is a response to certain political forces that were below the surface and now seen to be above the surface. If the consequence of the AAP coming in is harmful to theBJP it doesn't amount to a conspiracy between the Congress and AAP to do down the BJP. The BJP is being done down because it is not a secular party. And the AAP is a secular country. And this is a secular country. And even if Narendra Modi does not know the meaning of secularism, the people of India instinctively know it. That's why this Advani is shedding crocodile tears ever since the 6th of December 1992. He started that movement to build political power on the basis of religious sentiment. But the minute a place of worship had its domes knocked down , the average Hindu came out with a completely secular response saying you can't do this. And that's why thiese crocodile tears are being shed. So I'm very pleased with the secular nature of the AAP. On other matters, there are serious differences but on secularism, there is no difference.
